Waiting to Plant

Memorial Day weekend is the traditional planting time here in Montana. We could still get a frost—or even snow­—but conditions usually have warmed up enough that plants are safe in the ground. Yesterday was gorgeous, with sunshine and temps into the low 70s. Unfortunately, today isn’t supposed to get much above 50, with wind and rain. The rest of the weekend looks good, though, and next week is supposed to be sunny and warm. I took advantage of yesterday’s nice weather to cut the grass and run the weedeater around the garden so I could get to the garden this weekend to plant. It is so amazing to me how the weeds and the grass outpace everything else. 

The potatoes and peas are up. The potatoes need to be weeded (of course), but it’s a small area and won’t take long. The black plastic in other parts of the garden helps considerably. I try to keep tilling to a minimum. 

These are the plants that need to go in:

  • About 60 tomatoes, including Amish Paste, Oregon Star paste, Indian Stripe, Cherokee Purple, Dirty Girl, and Purple Russian paste.

  • Cauliflower

  • Corn

  • Cucumbers

  • Watermelon

  • Cantaloupe

  • Lettuce starts

I also need to plant beans, but I am not sure the soil is warm enough yet. The berry bushes look amazing, and the grapes are about to leaf out. 

Once I am finished with the planting, I get to try out the John Deere tractor in the yard. The husband mowed while I was gone and said that we should have gotten a tractor like that years ago. Huh. 

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DD#2 and I visited the Nordic Museum in Seattle last weekend. The husband has Norwegian ancestry on his mother’s side. Of course, I was most interested in the fiber-related displays, like the spinning wheels:

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And the clothing:

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And this dress, which the display said was knitted from fiber spun from plants and moss. I am surprised it has survived and survived in such good condition.

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This was a pleasant way to spend a Saturday morning.

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In other news, I think the BMW is headed over to Spokane next week via car transport, hopefully to be fixed with the recall work. I haven’t decided what to do about it after that. I need to have a reliable car and that one has proven that it isn’t. I’d prefer to have a vehicle without all of the bells and whistles, because bells and whistles break. I really wish that human beings were better at recognizing the point of diminishing returns. Technology is great, but overly complex systems break more often and cost more to fix when they do.